7.3

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

New beer by De Poes in Tielt and it is something worth investigating: Belgium's very first 'Steinbier', brewed with three different grains to a 17th-century recipe - apparently in that era, heating the wort by plunging red-hot rocks in it was more widespread than I thought, because in more recent times, 'Steinbier' (the German term gives it away) is more associated with Central Europe: the technique as such survived in Carinthia until the early 20th century and was famously revided by Leikeim in Bavaria in 2007. Several more have emerged since then, I even remember an American strong ale by The Bruery having undergone this treatment, but it never quite caught on even in craft beer times, I guess because it involves a lot of hassle especially in relation to the fairly limited flavour effects it has. In any case this 'Steinbier' should be seen as a method applicable to practically any beer style rather than as an actual beer style (comparable with a term like 'Eisbock') and in this case, De Poes simply applied it to a blonde ale of Belgian signature. Medium sized, egg-white, dense and tiny-bubbled, almost creamy, plastery-lacing, slowly breaking but generally very stable head on a misty peach blonde robe with metallic-orangey glow and disparate, fine sparkling. Aroma of halfripe banana, apple peel, cooked turnip, potato juice, sandwiches, a touch of caramel but not necessarily from the rocks, unsugared chewing gum, clove, white peach, thyme, chervil and hints of freshly struck matches and asphalt which must be the rocks. Sweetish, fruity onset, hints of halfripe peach, banana, pear and red apple peel, moderately carbonated with slight minerally effect - making it hard to determine whether there is also a minerally effect from the rocks. Supple, slick mouthfeel, bubblegummy esters and some residual sugars moving on top of a rounded-cereally pale maltiness with a thin caramelly edge - but again it remains difficult to pinpoint whether this caramelliness has anything to do with the rocks or not. Herbal and slightly leafy hop bitterness in the tail - again with a trace of lingering minerality, and again it remains nearly impossible to pick that out as an effect of the hot rocks. There is something vaguely 'caramelised' in the general taste that lingers a bit after swallowing and which I think is lacking in similar De Poes beers; I believe this is the most clear effect of this Steinbier treatment, but it too remains subtle and vague, too much so to make this creation stand out as something entirely new in Belgium purely flavour-wise. It got a bronze medal at the last edition of the Brussels Beer Challenge, but do not get distracted by that: just expect a rather 'ordinary', if technically well-executed, typical Belgian strong(ish) blonde.